mdRNAcat: A Molecular Dynamics RNA Catalog of REST2 Conformational Ensembles
Learning molecular models of RNA requires simulation data that capture conformational variability and provide consistent physical training signals. Here, we introduce mdRNAcat, a curated dataset of all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of 48 RNA systems selected to promote sequence diversity. Each system is simulated using replica-exchange with solute scaling (REST2), with 32 Hamiltonian states and production lengths of 200-300 ns per state. The dataset provides atomic coordinates, instantaneous forces, and forces reevaluated under the unscaled reference Hamiltonian, together with structural annotations and replica-exchange metadata. Coordinates and forces are available at 1 ps intervals for the reference state and 100 ps intervals across all states in a standardized HDF5 format. We characterize conformational sampling, exchange behavior, base pairing, and sugar-pucker distributions to document the properties of the simulated ensembles. mdRNAcat provides a reusable resource for developing and evaluating data-driven RNA models, including coarse-grained force fields.
Authors
- Emile De Bruyn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8748-2553)
- Fabrice von der Lehr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2134-6754)
- Stefan Kesselheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0940-5752)
- Philipp Knechtges (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4849-0593)
- Anton Emil Dorn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8422-0590)
- Alexander H. Schug (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0534-502X)
Publication Details
- Journal
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Published
- 2026-10-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.35204
- Primary Topic
- RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Type
- preprint